@Roadscum, that reminds me of the shark that got QUITE a ways up the Mississippi when I was a kid. My brother absolutely LOVED telling us that if a shark could get up to Illinois via the Mississippi it could also get to the streams near our house that we swam in.

When I lived in Sydney a few years back, a bloke got bitten on the leg by a shark while swimming across the river behind the Rose And Crown Hotel at Parramatta, a good 20km upstream from Sydney Harbour.

Two days out from an election they're pretty much guaranteed to win, our Federal Opposition has announced a mandatory internet filter, and a Won't Somebody Think of the Children Children's E-Safety Commissioner.

Meanwhile, it looks like mike Krahulik whoops-did-it-again-! at PAX, an a number of people are seriously upset about it, including Rachel Edidin who gives a good summary of the whole story, with links to other people's reactions :

And then on Monday at PAX, in front of an audience of thousands, Krahulik told business manager Robert Khoo that he regretted pulling the Dickwolves merchandise from the Penny Arcade store — merchandise he had created as a “screw you” to rape survivors who had had the temerity to complain about a comic strip. While the audience burst into applause, Khoo nodded sagely and said that now they knew better; now they would just leave it and not engage.

In Krahulik’s mind, he’s still the underdog rebelling against an unfair world bent on keeping him down. Despite decades of success and influence, he’s never learned to distinguish between criticism and censorship or understood the relationship between power and personal responsibility. He’s an angry teenager with the clout of an industry baron, and he’s cultivated a horde of followers who respond to criticism with death and rape threats. This are the sorts of people Penny Arcade courts when it digs in its heels and goes to the mat in defense of its right to punch down.

@Wood: Re: Dickwolves: I really wish he'd just said "it's not a rape joke" and moved on. Anything he ever does seems like tugging at that one loose thread on your jumper that will totally come off without ending in a total mess.

So there's a character named Batwoman? Who fights crime in Gotham, I assume? The city that already has a dozen superheroes running around in it? Fascinating. And she's basically a female Batman. Okay. Named Batwoman.

And she happens to be a lesbian? First I'd heard of it. And she was going to get married? Weird for a DC book, especially during the New 52. Weird for them to have ANY marriages, gay or otherwise. Doesn't gel with the whole "we're going to oversimplify every character as if they have a ten-second backstory" that's going on, but whatever. The addicts will keep buying new issues every month, and hey, sales are up.

The star creators acting like they own the character? Many have made that mistake. And the publisher vetoed a major storyline at the last minute? Yes. And this surprised somebody? It surprised them. Okay.

And the bad press will outweigh any good that could conceivably come of it? But of course. And sales will go up due to curiosity? But of course.

I can kind of see it from both ways, honestly. Here are some writers that had built up a story line for quite some time only to be told, in a way that they felt was late in the game, that their storyline wasn't cool with the franchise. /longtimelurker raises some totally valid points.

No, didn't mean that. I personally would have allowed the marriage, but I don't own the character. I would have allowed it if I were the editor, but I don't believe the decree came from the editor, or the editor's boss.

My take is that no one noticed or cared until it got big. Apparently the sales have been consistently high. That got noticed. They had very little interference along the way, because it is the nature of these companies to either maintain or revert to a status quo. A wedding is not a status quo.

And superhero marriages are rare to begin with. I know it pisses everyone off that this is a missed chance to see a wedding, but anyone who thought they were going to see progressive images from a BAT-BOOK is seriously deluding themselves.